· don't change sunset. don't ... 2 other activities, and describe the roles of ... 6 respect the...

(202) 234-4433Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

Page 1

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (AMS) NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM (NOP)

+ + + + +

MEETING OF THE NATIONAL ORGANIC STANDARDS BOARD (NOSB)

+ + + + +

TUESDAY APRIL 29, 2014

+ + + + +

The National Organic StandardsBoard convened at 8:30 a.m. at the SaintAnthony Hotel, 300 East Travis Street, SanAntonio, Texas, Mac Stone, Chairperson,presiding.

MEMBERS PRESENT:

ROBERT "MAC" STONE, ChairpersonJOHN FOSTER, Vice ChairpersonCALVIN WALKER, NOSB SecretaryHAROLD AUSTINCARMELA BECKCOLEHOUR BONDERAJOSEPH DICKSONTRACY FAVREJAY FELDMANWENDY FULWIDERNICHOLAS MARAVELLJEAN RICHARDSONZEA SONNABENDJENNIFER TAYLORFRANCIS THICKE


Page 2

STAFF PRESENT:

MILES McEVOY, Deputy Administrator, National

Organic Program

ANN MICHELLE ARSENAULT, Advisory Board

Specialist

MELISSA BAILEY, Director, Standards

Division, National Organic Program

LISA BRINES, Standards Division, National

Organic Program


Page 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Call To Order 4

Introductions, NOSB Mission 24

Secretary's Report 29

NOSB Assessment 40

Policy Development 84

Materials Update 99

National Organic Program (NOP) Report 196

Organic Agriculture at USDA 243

Presentation by the National Resource

Conservation Service 265

Public Comment 291

Adjourn 459


Page 4

1 P-R-O-C-E-E-D-I-N-G-S

2 (9:06 a.m.)

3 MR. McEVOY: Okay, we're going to

4 get started here. Good morning. Thank you

5 all for coming. I would like to open the

6 spring 2014 National Organic Standards Board

7 meeting.

8 MEMBER FELDMAN: Point of order,

9 Mr. Chair. Point of order.

10 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Don't

11 change sunset. Don't change sunset. Don't

12 change sunset

13 AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Don't change

14 sunset. Don't change sunset. Don't change



17 sunset. Don't change sunset.

18 CHAIR STONE: Thank you all.

19 Thank you all for bringing that to our

20 attention.

21 AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Don't change



Page 5

1 sunset.

2 CHAIR STONE: I think you all have

3 made - made your point. At this time we will

4 recess the meeting.

5 (Whereupon the above-entitled

6 meeting went off the record at 9:03 a.m. and

7 resumed at 9:06 a.m.)

8 MR. McEVOY: Okay. We're going to

9 get started again. So --

10 MEMBER FELDMAN: Point of order --

11 MR. McEVOY: -- again --

12 MEMBER FELDMAN: Point of order,

13 Mr. Chair.

14 MR. McEVOY: Yes, what? Thank

15 you, Jay.

16 MEMBER FELDMAN: Thank you. With

17 deep respect for your work, Mr. Chair, and the

18 work of this Board, and your outstanding work

19 in the community, I wanted to raise of point

20 of order, please, that your chairing of this

21 meeting is out of order.

22 It does not comply with the fact


Page 6

1 that the underlying legislation, OFPA, the

2 Organic Foods Production Act, Section 2119, 7

3 USC 6518, the National Organic Standards Board

4 Chairperson, subsection G, The Board shall

5 select a chairperson for the Board, or the

6 FACA rule, Final Rule 41 CFR Parts 101.6 and

7 101.2, which says that this Board must operate

8 under clear operating procedures.

9 The FACA rule also finds that the

10 chair, if it shall be a member of the

11 government, an official of the government such

12 as yourself, Mr. Chair, shall be appointed by

13 an agency head. This Board has received no

14 such letter to that effect. And that there

15 shall be clear rules in effect. This Board

16 has, nor this community, has received any such

17 rule.

18 And in fact, in your February 27

19 memo to the National Organic Standards Board

20 training summary, you state FACA requires that

21 AMS and NOP guidelines for managing the NOSB

22 provide clear operating procedures for the


Page 7

1 conduct of advisory committee meetings and

2 other activities, and describe the roles of

3 the advisory committee members, the DFO and

4 the staff.

5 You have not done so, Mr. Chair.

6 And given that, and given the failure to

7 comply with both the underlying enabling

8 legislation and the FACA final rule, I would

9 urge you, and I demand that we turn the gavel

10 back over to the selected chair under our

11 current operating procedures, as captured on

12 page 13 and 14 in the PPM, which outlines the

13 officers' responsibilities, including the

14 election of the chair and selection by the

15 Board. In officer responsibilities, it says,

16 The chair is responsible -- please listen to

17 this carefully -- is responsible to assure the

18 integrity of the Board process including

19 effectiveness of the meetings and the Board's

20 adherence to its own rules. The chair shall,

21 among other things, convene and preside at

22 meetings.


Page 8

1 So while I have deep respect for

2 you, Mr. Chair, and your long history of

3 commitment and work to the organic community,

4 I also respect the history of this Board and

5 the processes that we have engaged in. I

6 respect the previous Boards, I respect the

7 members around this table, and I believe we

8 should revert back to our PPM and procedures

9 until such time as the USDA National Organic

10 Program, AMS, issues rules with clarity that

11 establish a new procedure and goes through the

12 appropriate public process to adopt those.

13 Thank you very much.

14 MR. McEVOY: Thanks, Jay. So --

15 (Applause.)

16 MR. McEVOY: -- I just want to

17 point out that in -- under FACA and under the

18 NOSB's policies and procedures manual, that it

19 specifically says that the Designated Federal

20 Officer, who I am the Designated Federal

21 Officer for the National Organic Standards

22 Board, can chair the meeting when directed by


Page 9

1 the Secretary of Agriculture or the

2 Secretary's designee. That's right from the

3 NOSB policies and procedures manual. And also

4 under FACA, it's our responsibility as the

5 Designated Federal Officer to open the

6 meeting. That has been a responsibility that

7 we haven't done in past meetings, but it's a

8 requirement under FACA that we follow that.

9 So we'll continue on here with

10 opening up the meeting, and --

11 MEMBER FELDMAN: -- order, Mr.

12 Chair. I appeal from the decision of the

13 Chair, and I ask for a second.

14 MEMBER BONDERA: I second that

15 appeal.

16 MEMBER FELDMAN: Mr. Chair, I

17 believe we have the authorization now to move

18 forward with debate among all the Board

19 members, which requires the Board -- a vote of

20 this Board to continue this meeting under

21 rules that are yet to be written or procedures

22 that have not been published or discussed with


Page 10

1 the public.

2 (Pause.)

3 MR. McEVOY: Okay. So let's hear

4 the discussion.

5 MEMBER FELDMAN: You are -- under

6 the rules, Mr. Chair, you are welcome to

7 introduce the issue, make your comment and

8 then call on Board members, if they would like

9 to comment, and then close the session. Thank

10 you.

11 MR. McEVOY: So, Zea.

12 MEMBER SONNABEND: Since we're

13 being all Robert's Rules, I'd like to call the

14 question.

15 MEMBER FELDMAN: Out of order.

16 Point of order.

17 MEMBER SONNABEND: I'd like to

18 proceed with the meeting, so I'd like to call

19 the question. Thank you.

20 MEMBER FELDMAN: Mr. Chair, we

21 have a motion on the table that requires a

22 vote of the Board. We are allowed to debate


Page 11

1 the issue, Mr. Chair, so I's appreciate it if

2 you follow the rules and ask any Board members

3 if they have any comments on this.

4 MR. McEVOY: Okay. So the

5 question's been called so it ends debate, and

6 the question's on the table then.

7 MEMBER FELDMAN: I appeal from the

8 decision of the Chair which authorizes a

9 discussion and a vote of the Board --

10 requires, requires a discussion --

11 MR. McEVOY: No, we already

12 asked --

13 MEMBER FELDMAN: -- and vote of

14 the Board.

15 MR. McEVOY: -- for discussion, so

16 we -- and then the question's been called, so.

17 MEMBER FELDMAN: I'd like to

18 discuss this.

19 MR. McEVOY: So Jay, you've made

20 your opening statement, and --

21 MEMBER FELDMAN: Right.

22 MR. McEVOY: Are there further


Page 12

1 points that people would like to make on this

2 issue?

3 (No audible response.)

4 MR. McEVOY: If not, then the

5 question's on the table. All those in favor?

6 (No audible response.)

7 MR. McEVOY: All those opposed?

8 MEMBER SONNABEND: Aye.

9 MR. McEVOY: Please restate the

10 motion. So the motion is -- Jay, can you

11 repeat the motion?

12 MEMBER FELDMAN: The motion on the

13 table is that we revert to the policies and

14 procedures adopted by the Board of -- by the

15 NOSB Board and revert the chair, the power of

16 the chair, the power of the chairperson to the

17 person selected by the Board to run this

18 meeting, convene this meeting and run this

19 meeting in accordance with the policies and

20 procedures manual.

21 MR. McEVOY: Okay. Everybody got

22 that? All those in favor?


Page 13

1

2 MEMBER FELDMAN: Aye.

3 MEMBER BECK: Aye.

4 MEMBER TAYLOR: Aye.

5 MR. McEVOY: We've got four ayes.

6 All those opposed?

7 MALE PARTICIPANT: Aye.

8 MALE PARTICIPANT: Aye.

9 MEMBER FELDMAN: I'll ask for a

10 roll call, please, Mr. Chair. I ask for a

11 roll call, please.

12 MR. McEVOY: All right. Let's

13 start with Francis.

14 MEMBER THICKE: Aye.

15 MR. McEVOY: Wendy?

16 MEMBER FULWIDER: Aye.

17 MR. McEVOY: Nick?

18 MEMBER MARAVELL: Abstain.

19 MR. McEVOY: Tracy?

20 MEMBER FAVRE: Abstain.

21 MR. McEVOY: Carmela?

22 MEMBER BECK: Could I get


Page 14

1 clarification on the vote, how I'm voting.

2 I'm voting against that.

3 MR. McEVOY: You're asking for

4 clarification on the motion?

5 MEMBER BECK: Yes, one more time.

6 I'm sorry. It's really long.

7 MEMBER FELDMAN: The motion is to

8 revert to the PPM and confer the duties of the

9 chair back to the selected chair of the NOSB.

10 MR. McEVOY: Okay.

11 MEMBER BECK: That's a no.

12 MR. McEVOY: Hold on just a minute

13 here.

14 (Pause.)

15 MR. McEVOY: We're going to take a

16 five minute recess so we can understand the

17 process here. So I apologize for that, but

18 we'll get started in a few minutes.

19 (Whereupon, the above-entitled

20 matter went off the record at

21 9:17 a.m. and went back on the

22 record at 9:19 a.m.)


Page 15

1 MR. McEVOY: So, thank you very

2 much, Jay. Your motion is not a debatable

3 ruling, so we're going to continue on here

4 with introductory statements. And we're

5 going to get into this in a lot of detail in

6 terms of FACA and the Organic Foods Production

7 Act and the NOSB policies and procedures

8 manual. That's part of the introductory

9 remarks.

10 Okay. Nice music, but --

11 MEMBER FELDMAN: May I just make a

12 statement to close this out?

13 MR. McEVOY: Sure.

14 MEMBER FELDMAN: Thank you.

15 MR. McEVOY: Please.

16 MEMBER FELDMAN: Thank you, Miles.

17 Obviously, you know, there's --

18 the word I got was that the meeting might have

19 to be closed down if we couldn't resolve this,

20 so it's not my intent to close the meeting

21 down. The most important part of this meeting

22 is hearing from the organic community on all


Page 16

1 these important issues.

2 I do believe this issue remains

3 unresolved, and I do believe very strongly

4 that until we have very clear policies and

5 procedures as required in our democratic

6 society to run meetings of this sort, public

7 meetings, that we do operate outside the law.

8 So we'll leave that issue on the table and in

9 the spirit of collaboration, I concur with

10 your moving on with the meeting. Thank you so

11 much for addressing these issues.

12 MR. McEVOY: Yes, thanks, Jay.

13 And we are certainly operating within the law

14 and under FACA and OFPA in this, in everything

15 that we do. There's certainly questions that

16 will come up in terms of procedure and how we

17 operate, and we're happy to hear those

18 questions, go back to counsel and report back

19 to the Board about procedures.

20 So again, good morning. Thanks to

21 everyone for coming. We're getting a little

22 bit of a late start here, but there's a lot of


Page 17

1 things to cover as well.

2 So I'd like to open the National

3 Organic Standards Board meeting. As I said,

4 I am Miles McEvoy. I'm the deputy

5 administrator in the Agricultural Marketing

6 Service, I'm the Program Manager of the

7 National Organic Program, and I'm the

8 Designated Federal Officer of the National

9 Organic Standards Board.

10 Under the Federal Advisory

11 Committee Act, and as per the NOSB policy and

12 procedures manual, which says that the

13 Designated Federal Officer can chair the

14 meeting, it is my pleasure to open the San

15 Antonio meeting.

16 Welcome to Board members and the

17 public. I look forward to a great meeting.

18 We've already had a lot of interesting things

19 happening, and we'll continue to have that,

20 I'm sure. In a moment, I will turn the

21 meeting over to Mac Stone, the NOSB Chair, but

22 first I have a few things that I'd like to


Page 18

1 cover.

2 First of all, I want to thank the

3 NOSB members for their service to the organic

4 community. All the members of the Board are

5 volunteers. They devote hundreds of hours on

6 researching topics, discussing and developing

7 proposals, reading and listening to the public

8 comments, they all try to do this to provide

9 the best recommendations possible to the

10 National Organic Program, to the Agricultural

11 Marketing Service, and to USDA.

12 Second, USDA, Agricultural

13 Marketing Service, and then National Organic

14 Program value very much the advice and

15 recommendations of the NOSB. We are working

16 to understand those recommendations, to review

17 those recommendations and implement them as

18 needed. There are many NOSB recommendations

19 that have been passed over the years. There's

20 dozens of them that we still have in the queue

21 to be worked on.

22 Over the last year, many NOSB


Page 19

1 recommendations have been acted upon by the

2 NOP, including draft guidance on

3 classification of materials, proposed rule on

4 biodegradable mulch, certification

5 requirements for unpackaged organic products,

6 and many more.

7 We have significant -- we made

8 significant progress on aquaculture, pet food

9 and origin of livestock with proposed rules

10 coming out later this year. And then many

11 others are being worked on well, including

12 animal welfare. The NOSB has passed dozens of

13 recommendations and we're still trying to

14 catch up with your great work.

15 Third, we value all of the public

16 input and comments. We appreciate all the

17 time that everyone puts in to the written and

18 oral comments. We're here to listen and

19 understand. That's part of the reason why

20 we're sitting up here at the table. If you've

21 been here over a number of years, when I first

22 got here in 2009, the program sat down in the


Page 20

1 front row and separate from the Board. And

2 over the last few meetings, we've been sitting

3 off to the side.

4 But what we've heard and you'll

5 hear more in the NOSB assessment is that a lot

6 of the comments that you all make are comments

7 to the program as much as to the Board, and we

8 want to be here, listen to your comments,

9 understand where you're coming from to make

10 sure that we can, in the best way possible,

11 try to address your comments and move forward

12 with the best interest of the organic

13 community as a whole.

14 Fourth, we have heard a lot of

15 comments and angst about the revised Sunset

16 process and some changes to the NOSB

17 procedures. Even Secretary Vilsack received

18 a letter from Secretary Leahy and Congressman

19 DeFazio last week. So we understand there's

20 a lot of interest in the revised Sunset

21 process.

22 We ask that you listen to our


Page 21

1 presentations on the Organic Foods Production

2 Act, on the Federal Advisory Committee and on

3 the revised Sunset process. I think that you

4 will find that the changes are better aligned

5 with OFPA and FACA, ensure a better process

6 and better public input and better protect the

7 organic community from minority changes to the

8 organic requirements.

9 And lastly, USDA is very

10 supportive of the organic sector. We are busy

11 in many areas to support the sector as you

12 will hear throughout the day. Keep up the

13 great work. We salute the work that you

14 already do to support organics and protect the

15 integrity of the organic label.

16 So let me briefly cover the agenda

17 for the next few days. We have a lot of

18 topics to cover over the next few days. Today

19 we start with an overview of NOSB procedures,

20 covering the NOSB assessment, the Organic

21 Foods Production Act, FACA, the Federal

22 Advisory Committee Act, and the NOSB policies


Page 22

1 and procedures manual.

2 Next, Dr. Jean Richardson will

3 provide an update on the policy development

4 subcommittee. Next we'll cover the National

5 List and petition process, a brief overview of

6 rule making, how NOSB recommendations become

7 law, followed by the revised Sunset process.

8 Next will be a report from the National

9 Organic Program, of the activities that we're

10 up to. Then we'll have lunch.

11 The afternoon will start with a

12 presentation from USDA's Natural Resource

13 Conservation Service on opportunities for

14 organic farmers, and some issues regarding

15 conservation practices on organic farms. This

16 presentation will help explain the memo that

17 we sent to the Board yesterday requesting that

18 they work on soil conservation practices for

19 organic farms.

20 Next we'll have a report from the

21 Secretary's office on all the activities at

22 USDA that support organic agriculture.


Page 23

1 Then we get to the most important

2 and interesting part of the meeting, the

3 public comments. Public comment runs to the

4 end of today and through a majority of

5 Wednesday. Thirty percent of the meeting time

6 is devoted to public comments.

7 Wednesday afternoon we'll have the

8 crop subcommittee items that will be

9 discussed. Thursday the Board will cover

10 livestock handling certification,

11 accreditation and compliance and materials

12 items. Friday morning will be for deferred

13 items, NOSB officer elections, and then we'll

14 wrap up by noon.

15 So, okay, now I'm going to

16 introduce the USDA team that's here. First of

17 all, I have Dr. Melissa Bailey on my right,

18 the NOP standards director. Next to her is

19 Dr. Lisa Brines, the National List Manager.

20 We have Michelle Arsenault, our

21 NOSB advisory board specialist that will

22 handle all of the oral public comments. So if


Page 24

1 you have any questions about logistics or

2 timing, please connect with her. She also --

3 if you have anything for handing out to the

4 Board or for your presentations, get that

5 information to Michelle.

6 We also have Mark Lipson, Organic

7 Policy Director from the Secretary's office.

8 He'll be speaking this afternoon. We have Sam

9 Jones from AMS Public Affairs, so if there's

10 any media here, please check in with Sam. And

11 then we have Sara Brown from the Natural

12 Resource Conservation Service who will be

13 speaking about soil conservation this

14 afternoon.

15 Okay. Mac, now I'll turn it over

16 to you.

17 CHAIR STONE: Thank you, Miles.

18 It's been a year since we were

19 together. That's given a lot of us time to

20 think, it gave the USDA time to do some

21 recalibration and looking at how we operate.

22 The Board had a training in February and we


Page 25

1 were apprised of a lot of these changes, and

2 so the Board has spent a lot of time in

3 discussion of, we still have a lot of

4 responsibility to take -- all these 15 of us

5 have a lot of responsibility to assimilate and

6 make decisions on your all's behalf.

7 And I assure you there are no easy

8 decisions on this side of the microphone, and

9 we need and thrive off of all of your all's

10 input. But ultimately we have the

11 responsibility to take the longer view or to

12 respect our perspective of where to guide this

13 ship.

14 So I look forward in the next few

15 days as we sort of land in a new spot, if you

16 will, and agree to go forward because it's

17 quite frustrating when we keep punching each

18 other in the nose rather than agreeing on our

19 differences and then ultimately leaving it up

20 to us to decide. And I say, there's no easy

21 decisions. There's always people that benefit

22 and people that come up short on a decision.


Page 26

1 So I urge us to have a very

2 serious conversation and respect each other's

3 differences. But ultimately these 15

4 people -- these 14 people that I've grown to

5 respect very much are going to have to make

6 some decisions in the next few days, and we

7 just need to listen and we need to agree at

8 some point how we're going to go forward. The

9 Board still has a lot of responsibility here.

10 The Board's responsibility was not take away.

11 The procedure was changed in the way we

12 operate.

13 So we didn't get -- I didn't get a

14 chance to welcome to all to Louisville last

15 October. We have rescheduled that meeting in

16 Louisville, so I look forward to hosting all

17 of you all in the great state of Kentucky.

18 And I would remind you, if

19 everyone would turn your cell phones on

20 vibrate, please. Also, there will be a

21 reception tomorrow night. Right, Michelle?

22 Tomorrow night's the reception? NCAT, Robert


Page 27

1 Maggiani and several other members; TOFGA,

2 Texas Organic Farming and Gardening

3 Association, Whole Foods, Crave Market, Zurich

4 International Properties, Eugene Martinez

5 Farm, and -- I should have read this before --

6 Valhausen Family Farm. Mr. or Mrs. Valhausen,

7 excuse me for pronouncing your name however I

8 should have.

9 So that is around the corner.

10 There are maps I guess out on the little

11 table. It's just two or three blocks away,

12 and we very much appreciate them letting us

13 all get together in a casual setting tomorrow

14 evening.

15 As is tradition, at some -- we

16 always remind ourselves of the vision, of our

17 mission, if you will, is to assist in the

18 development of standards for substances to be

19 used in organic production and to advise the

20 Secretary on any other aspects of the

21 implementation of this title.

22 And I chose that mission statement


Page 28

1 versus the vision. We still have the

2 responsibility, we still have a mechanism to

3 advise the Secretary. Again, the process may

4 have changed, but the responsibility and the

5 ability to effect change has not changed.

6 With that I failed to introduce

7 myself. And then I'll ask the Board members

8 to follow suit. Again, I'm Mac Stone,

9 currently the chair of the National Organic

10 Standards Board. My wife and her brother and

11 their family and I run a certified organic

12 farm in Kentucky. We have CSA, farmers

13 market, mostly a direct market operation. I'm

14 dramatically impacted by the work of this

15 Board over the past few years, and represent

16 the certifiers on the Board.

17 And with that I'll hand it off to

18 Mr. Foster. We'll go this way.

19 VICE CHAIR FOSTER: My name's John

20 Foster. I've been -- this is my last of five

21 years on the Board. I represent

22 handler/processor folks. I, in the past, have


Page 29

1 served as crops -- going back then -- crops

2 committee chair and have also served as the

3 chair of the handling subcommittee after the

4 name change. It's, again, a pleasure to be

5 here, and I -- my other job is for Earthbound

6 Farm. I work in the areas of regulatory

7 compliance.

8 SECRETARY WALKER: Good morning.

9 My name is Calvin Walker. However, the last

10 two years I've changed it to C. Rueben Walker

11 because I found out that it helped with

12 funding for my university. When you get 3-

13 and $400,000 in grants when you use C. Rueben

14 Walker, you might as well continue to use C.

15 Rueben.

16 Again, I would like to welcome

17 everybody to Texas, the neighboring state of

18 Louisiana. And before I say a little bit more

19 about myself, I would like to say

20 congratulations and happy birthday Dr. Jean

21 Richardson. Today she's 25 years old.

22 (Applause.)


Page 30

1 SECRETARY WALKER: I was appointed

2 to the Board by Secretary Vilsack as a

3 consumer, a public interest advocate. My way

4 to organics came about by Mr. Frank Stronach,

5 former founder of Magna Corporation in Canada,

6 and Dennis Mills, his CEO. And their efforts

7 was to help grow organics among minorities

8 during the time of Katrina.

9 And I was one of the individuals

10 that they had called to help. I didn't know

11 a lot -- I used the word shiggity. Shiggity

12 is a word I could tell you what it means later

13 on. I think it's good for the transcript to

14 use the word shiggity. But Mr. Stronach and

15 Dennis Mills was able to give me some good

16 guidance about organics. And this is the way

17 that I came to organics, and I'm glad that

18 these two individuals were a part of my

19 evolution to organics.

20 I currently serve as chair of the

21 Agricultural Sciences and Urban Forestry

22 Program at Southern. And I represent, again,


Page 31

1 the consumers, the public, and I served as the

2 vice -- as the chair of the materials

3 committee, and I'm member of the livestock

4 committee.

5 MEMBER RICHARDSON: Thank you,

6 Calvin.

7 I'm not as funny as Calvin is.

8 But I have -- you know, anyway. So I'm Jean

9 Richardson. I have a background in the

10 biological and earth sciences and law,

11 professor emerita of environmental studies and

12 natural resources, University of Vermont.

13 I used to operate a small family

14 farm. Mostly we had animals like a sort of

15 McDonald's farm, is you will, grew little of

16 everything. Now I help my kids on their

17 organic maple syrup production business in

18 northern Vermont. And we had a very late

19 season this year because of the weather.

20 And also an organic inspector,

21 have been for about 14-15 years, for both

22 farms and for processing and for handling, and


Page 32

1 I represent public interest on the Board. I'm

2 also on the handling subcommittee, the

3 livestock subcommittee and the accreditation

4 subcommittee, and for a brief period I was a

5 chair of policy, and maybe I still am, that

6 yet remains to be seen. Thank you.

7 MEMBER DICKSON: Thank you, Jean.

8 My name is Joe Dickson. I am the

9 global quality standards coordinator at Whole

10 Foods Market just up the road in Austin,

11 Texas. I am in my fifth year on the National

12 Organic Standards Board as the retail

13 representative on the Board.

14 I serve on the compliance,

15 accreditation and certification committee,

16 along with the livestock and the handling

17 committees, and I'm happy to be here in San

18 Antonio and welcome you all to Texas.

19 MEMBER BECK: Good morning. My

20 name is Carmela Beck. I work for Driscoll

21 Strawberry Associates. We're based out of

22 Watsonville, California. I'm the organic


Page 33

1 program manager, so I do the certification for

2 all of our organic farmers. I have the farmer

3 seat. I'm in my third year. I am the chair

4 of the CACS and I also am on the crop

5 subcommittee. And it's nice to see all of you

6 here.

7 MEMBER FAVRE: As we say in Texas,

8 howdy. As a native Texan, I'd like to welcome

9 you to the great republic of the state of

10 Texas, home of the Alamo, which I encourage

11 you to go see. Every school child in Texas in

12 the eighth grade takes Texas history, and the

13 Alamo is one of the great stories of the state

14 of Texas, so I encourage you to go.

15 My name is Tracy Favre. I'm

16 currently head of the livestock subcommittee.

17 I am a registered professional engineer in the

18 state of Texas. I sit on the environmental --

19 one of the environmental seats on the Board

20 after having worked as an environmental

21 engineer in the state of Texas for 18 years.

22 I currently have a small diversified family


Page 34

1 farm in Granbury, Texas, just southwest of Ft.

2 Worth. Thank you all for coming here today.

3 MEMBER MARAVELL: Hi, I'm Nick

4 Maravell, organic producer of crops and

5 livestock in Maryland.

6 MEMBER FULWIDER: Hi, I'm Wendy

7 Fulwider, and I represent producers on this

8 Board. I own a certified organic dairy farm

9 with my son, Cody, in Ripon, Wisconsin, and we

10 also direct market grass-finished beef,

11 pastured pork and free range poultry. I also

12 work for Global Animal Partnership as a farm

13 animal care specialist.

14 MEMBER THICKE: Hi, I'm Francis

15 Thicke. I'm from Iowa, an organic dairy

16 farmer, and we market our products locally,

17 process it on the farm. I'm also a soil

18 scientist and in the past have worked at USDA

19 in Washington as a natural program leader for

20 soil science with the USDA extension service.

21 And I sit in the environmentalist chair.

22 MEMBER BONDERA: Hello everybody.


Page 35

1 My name is Colehour Bondera and I'm glad to be

2 in Texas, but I'm here from Hawaii, and I'm a

3 representative on the board of organic

4 farmers, which my family has a small diverse

5 organic farm in Hawaii. I think the only

6 thing worth sharing is that I serve -- I'm

7 former chair of the policy development

8 subcommittee, as Jean referred, and I serve on

9 the crops and the livestock subcommittees.

10 Thank you.

11 MEMBER TAYLOR: Good morning. I'm

12 Jennifer Taylor and on the Board I serve and

13 represent the public and the organic

14 community. Thank you.

15 MEMBER FELDMAN: Good morning.

16 Good morning. Jay Feldman. I am Executive

17 Director of Beyond Pesticides. I serve in the

18 environmental conservation slot on the Board.

19 Our organization is a diverse mix

20 of scientists and activists and farmers, farm

21 workers who come together around the idea that

22 toxic chemicals have no place in our society,


Page 36

1 especially in the production of food. We

2 believe very deeply that we need to grow the

3 organic community, grow the organic commitment

4 on behalf of consumers and all those out there

5 that are concerned about health and

6 environment.

7 And we do that by building trust,

8 trust in the organic label. So you'll hear me

9 speaking throughout this meeting from that

10 perspective because we believe organic is the

11 solution to pesticide pollution. And it is an

12 honor to serve with all of these incredibly

13 dedicated people on this Board and in the

14 agency. And I hope we can make the right

15 decisions over the next couple of days. Thank

16 you.

17 MEMBER SONNABEND: Hi, I'm Zea

18 Sonnabend from Watsonville, California. My

19 affiliations are Fruitilicious Farm and CCOF.

20 I chair the crops committee and serve on the

21 handling committee and the materials/GMO

22 committee, and the inerts working group.


Page 37

1 MEMBER AUSTIN: Good morning. My

2 name's Harold Austin. I'm with Zirkle Fruit

3 Company. We're a handler and a processor out

4 of the state of Washington farming organic

5 apples, cherries, pears, wine grapes,

6 blueberries.

7 I sit as the chair of the handling

8 subcommittee, I serve on the crops committee

9 and also the CACS. I've been a part of the

10 organic industry for a little over 20 years,

11 first as a consultant and then as part of the

12 part of the company that I now work for. I'm

13 very proud of that affiliation and that

14 association.

15 We've come a long ways, our

16 organic family. And that's everybody in this

17 room. And I'm proud to be a part of the

18 growth of what organics is today compared to

19 where we were even just a mere five, six,

20 seven years ago. We've got a long ways to go.

21 We've got a long ways to work together to

22 overcome the hurdles and challenges that our


Page 38

1 organic industry and our organic family and

2 community will face.

3 And we need to do that together

4 collectively. There's a way that we can step

5 into the same room and work with same

6 commitment, no matter what your perspective,

7 no matter what your passion, no matter what

8 entities you represent, as we can show by the

9 15 of us that sit on this Board working

10 together for a common goal.

11 I'm glad to be a part of it, and I

12 thank you all for being here. And I would

13 like to say that Washington State's also -- we

14 don't have a basketball team anymore, but we

15 are the home of the Seattle Seahawks, the

16 world championship football team.

17 CHAIR STONE: And that ball

18 doesn't really bounce very well, does it?

19 MEMBER AUSTIN: A little bit

20 pointy.

21 CHAIR STONE: Well, thank you all.

22 And, Zea, I think I'll recommend to the


Page 39

1 executive committee that we make that the non-

2 GMO committee. Okay?

3 All right. Thank you. Yes, we

4 are here -- as I said, this group of

5 individuals up here is going to have to make

6 some decisions, and the better that we can

7 engage with you all and have a spirited

8 debate, if you will, is very important. Miles

9 referenced that a full third of the time that

10 we have together is in oral comments.

11 I'll assure you that written

12 comments, all of us around the table that look

13 a little bleary-eyed, it's not from jet lag,

14 it's from reading every single one of those

15 written comments so that when we get together

16 we can address the specific issues.

17 And when we get substantive

18 written comments, it affects the way we do

19 business on this side of the table. We're

20 looking at how do we have a more efficient

21 method of us getting your all's input into the

22 process.


Page 40

1 So those are the types of things

2 that are still very much alive and very much

3 of what we're trying to do on your all's

4 behalf, as Harold said, to grow this community

5 and grow that seal that you see displayed up

6 on the board behind me.

7 So with that, Miles is going to

8 give us some assessment that the program has

9 been working through with their staff at USDA.

10 MR. McEVOY: Okay. Thanks, Mac.

11 So what -- the next part of the

12 day is going to be the presentations that we

13 actually gave to the National Organic

14 Standards Board in February in an abbreviated

15 fashion. So all of the content that's going

16 to be covered today is already up on our

17 website. You just go under the NOSB February

18 training and you can find the content for a

19 lot of things that we cover today.

20 This is a shorter version of that,

21 but we're going to go through that information

22 again. Part of the information that we got


Page 41

1 from the assessment is that it's very

2 important that we're very clear on what the

3 procedures are, how we operate, and in many

4 different levels of USDA and AMS, NOP and

5 NOSB.

6 Okay. Great. So I'm going to --

7 first, I'm going to cover the NOSB assessment,

8 then I'm going to cover NOSB under the Organic

9 Foods Production Act and the Federal Advisory

10 Committee Act, because both of those Acts,

11 those statutes are very important to the

12 understanding of how the National Organic

13 Standards Board works, and then get into NOSB

14 procedures.

15 So first of all, we all know about

16 the concept of continual improvement under the

17 organic principles. We're always looking of

18 ways to improve the process, to make the

19 system better. This is a public/private

20 partnership the way that the Organic Foods

21 Production Act was set up, a partnership

22 between public entities and private groups.


Page 42

1 We've received requests from the

2 public for more transparency and clarification

3 of the NOSB process. Many of the people in

4 this room have submitted those kinds of

5 comments over the last few years.

6 So AMS has these goals of, first

7 of all, to fully address all the NOSB

8 recommendations. There's many

9 recommendations, as I said, that we still have

10 not fully addressed, and to receive advice

11 from the NOSB that we can implement.

12 We really want to be successful.

13 We want those recommendations to be things

14 that we can actually work with and implement

15 through the governmental process. We're also

16 interested in improving the efficiency and

17 effectiveness of the NOSB to make sure that

18 the recommendations are as effective as

19 possible and really can be implemented.

20 So last summer we contracted with

21 the Meridian Institute to conduct an outside

22 assessment of the NOSB to try to learn things


Page 43

1 of how we could improve that process. The

2 Meridian Institute is a non-profit with

3 expertise in process design, facilitation,

4 mediation and conducting assessments of

5 organizational dynamics. The Meridian

6 assessment report was posted yesterday, so you

7 can see the full report on the NOP website

8 now.

9 The methodology that they followed

10 is they conducted 33 interviews between

11 October and early December. All the Board

12 members were interviewed and then some key

13 stakeholders. They analyzed that data from

14 the interviews to develop their report.

15 Now 33 is not that many, it's not

16 a statistically valid sample of the organic

17 community, but that was the resources that we

18 had. We tried to identify our key

19 stakeholders within the organic community that

20 are very active in the National Organic

21 Standards Board process to be the key folks

22 that we interviewed as part of that process.


Page 44

1 The key findings in this report of

2 what we heard works from the report is that it

3 was good access to the National Organic

4 Program staff when needed by the National

5 Organic Standards Board, strong leadership

6 from NOP staff, improvements in the

7 organization and implementation of the process

8 in recent years.

9 If you've been following the

10 National Organic Standards Board, there have

11 been many changes that we've implemented over

12 the years. We'll continue to do that to try

13 to make the process better. Good

14 documentation of public meetings and the

15 subcommittee calls.

16 Also, a high level of respect

17 among the Board members, public meetings are

18 very effective at moving through established

19 agendas. There's a clear NOSB focus today

20 than in previous years is what they said were

21 their findings. And that stakeholders

22 generally view the NOSB process as transparent


Page 45

1 and particularly the public meetings. A lot

2 of value that the stakeholders felt were in

3 these public meetings.

4 The major themes that they

5 identified in the report were in four areas:

6 roles and responsibilities, communication and

7 transparency, NOSB workload and scope, and

8 NOSB public meetings. So I'll go into each of

9 those in more detail.

10 So in terms of roles and

11 responsibilities they identified a range of

12 views on the following issues. First of all,

13 NOSB authority. We've already seen that this

14 morning. There's a lot of different

15 viewpoints in terms of what is the NOSB's

16 authority.

17 The development of NOSB work

18 plans, which I'll cover in more detail later

19 today, there was a lot of differing views on

20 that. And the nature of the partnership

21 between the NOSB and the National Organic

22 Program in developing recommendations and


Page 46

1 setting policy. So a lot of divergent

2 viewpoints in these particular areas.

3 So their concepts for potential

4 next steps, first of all, the need to clarify

5 the extent of the advisory nature of the

6 Board, the responsibility for both the

7 National Organic Program and the National

8 Organic Standards Board in developing and

9 executing work plans, NOP's legal

10 responsibilities regarding review of the NOSB

11 recommendations, and the protocols to guide

12 collaborative work with the NOSB.

13 So they also suggested providing

14 training to new NOSB members, clarifying the

15 roles and responsibilities. So that's one of

16 the concepts that we hope to implement, or we

17 plan to implement is ensuring adequate

18 training for new NOSB members that come on to

19 the Board.

20 In terms of communication and

21 transparency, their key findings were that

22 there were differing perceptions of how


Page 47

1 effective communication currently is between

2 NOP staff and the NOSB, particularly regarding

3 the development of subcommittee work plans.

4 There was a desire for more communication

5 pathways to the National Organic Program from

6 external stakeholders.

7 This is one way to get information

8 into the National Organic Program, but there

9 are other methods that we want to highlight as

10 well. There is the NOP guidance at usda.gov

11 that's always open for public comment, so we

12 want to make people aware that there are ways

13 to get comments into the National Organic

14 Program at any time.

15 And stakeholders also seek a clear

16 understanding of progress that's made on these

17 NOSB recommendations within the USDA's rule

18 making process. So we'll try to be more

19 transparent and more communicative about where

20 we are with the various NOSB recommendations.

21 So our next steps, review the

22 roles and responsibilities for the National


Page 48

1 Organic Standards Board and the National

2 Organic Program; to guide input on

3 subcommittee work plans, we'll go through that

4 in more detail later this morning; establish

5 a means for external stakeholders to provide

6 comment directly to the National Organic

7 Program rather than through NOSB channels. We

8 have some things set up but we need to expand

9 on those.

10 The Board passed an open

11 communication recommendation last year or the

12 year before that we still haven't implemented.

13 It's one of a number of NOSB recommendations

14 that haven't been implemented that we support.

15 We just haven't gotten that particular item

16 completed.

17 And providing more clarity on the

18 process that recommendations must go through

19 to be implemented by USDA. And that's what

20 we're going to try to do today, is to provide

21 some more clarity, some more information about

22 that process that we go through to make those


Page 49

1 recommendations into effective rules or

2 policy.

3 The next area was around NOSB's

4 scope. The key issues identified was that

5 there was an extensive NOSB workload, it was

6 hard for many of the NOSB members to manage

7 the work that they have in front of them in

8 terms of the national risk, the Sunset and the

9 other work that the Board is working on.

10 Desire for more strategic

11 conversations. On the one hand there's too

12 much work for the Board, on the other hand the

13 Board wants to have more higher level

14 strategic conversations about the direction of

15 the organic standards, organic community.

16 The complex technical nature of

17 petitions reviewed by the Board. That's very

18 much a challenging thing for the Board

19 members. These are very complex technical

20 issues on many of these materials. And then

21 uneven distribution of work among

22 subcommittees.


Page 50

1 So potential next steps here, one

2 idea is to focus strictly on National List

3 issues. That's the area of authority

4 specifically granted under the Organic Foods

5 Production Act. Clarify the process of

6 identifying and vetting experts to participate

7 in technical advisory panels, and focus

8 additional efforts on technical support for

9 NOSB subcommittees.

10 One of the things that we've done

11 over the last few years, each of the

12 subcommittees now has a technical

13 representative from the National Organic

14 Standards Board to try to provide support to

15 those subcommittees. But still the Board

16 wants more information and more support, so

17 how can we provide more support, technical

18 support for those subcommittees.

19 In terms of effective public

20 meetings, the meeting duration was seen as

21 limiting the robust discussion, so certainly

22 a suggestion for longer public meetings. The


Page 51

1 oral public comment was viewed as having a

2 disproportionate impact on the NOSB meetings.

3 The high volume of written public

4 comments is difficult for the Board to review.

5 Part of the problem is, is that the written

6 comment period closes pretty close to the

7 meeting date, so it's a very, very compressed

8 amount of time for the Board to review all

9 those comments between the closure of written

10 comment period and the opening of the meeting.

11 A need for more collegial meeting

12 environment and desire for more robust

13 dialogue among Board members during meetings.

14 So potential next steps here,

15 consider length of public meetings as well as

16 conducting some portions of the public

17 meetings via teleconference, webinar or other

18 virtual means. So we might want to look into

19 some of those concepts of using technology to

20 expand the open public meetings that the Board

21 has.

22 Establish a mechanism to gather


Page 52

1 and consider written comments directed to the

2 NOP rather than the NOSB. So is there some

3 way that we can carve off part of the meeting

4 for comments directly to the National Organic

5 Program. Consider restructuring the public

6 comment process to better facilitate direct

7 dialogue and feedback. Consider whether focus

8 should be on oral or written comments and

9 adjust schedules accordingly.

10 There's some interesting ideas

11 that they have in the assessment report about

12 ways of improving the dialogue or other ways

13 of running this meeting to have more dialogue

14 and discussion at these meetings.

15 Other things that the assessment

16 report discusses is subcommittee process and

17 functions, NOSB policies and procedures and

18 Board member selections. So please take a

19 look at the assessment report. There's a lot

20 of really good information in there that can

21 give us some ideas of how to continue to

22 improve the process.


Page 53

1 So now moving on to the National

2 Organic Standards Board. As you know, the

3 Board is appointed by the Secretary of

4 Agriculture under the Federal Advisory

5 Committee Act. The purpose of a FACA

6 committee is to obtain advice or

7 recommendations on issues or policies within

8 the scope of an agency's official

9 responsibilities. NOSB reviews substances and

10 recommends if they should be allowed and

11 prohibited.

12 USDA's role with the National

13 Organic Standards Board, we have specific

14 responsibilities, including ensuring that

15 there's public access to the NOSB actions and

16 that that is maximized. We're responsible for

17 issuing administrative guidelines to the

18 National Organic Standards Board. We're

19 responsible for controlling the undue

20 influence of special interests by balancing

21 committee membership. This is all from the

22 Federal Advisory Committee Act. We're also


Page 54

1 responsible to monitor and reduce costs as

2 much as possible to make -- to maximize the

3 return on the investment of public money into

4 these meetings.

5 In addition, USDA may not include

6 exemptions for the use of specific synthetic

7 substances without them having been proposed

8 or recommended by the National Organic

9 Standards Board. We all know this point, but

10 it's important to reiterate that the USDA, the

11 National Organic Program cannot add anything,

12 any synthetic substance to the National List

13 unless there's a recommendation for that to

14 happen that comes from the National Organic

15 Standards Board.

16 In addition though, also within

17 OFPA, USDA is responsible for evaluating the

18 OFPA criteria associated with National List

19 substances. So there's a shared

20 responsibility.

21 We certainly can't add anything to

22 the National List that hasn't been recommended


Page 55

1 by the Board. But just because it's

2 recommended by the Board, we still have to do

3 the analysis to determine that it meets OFPA

4 criteria and may or may not decide to add

5 something to the National List.

6 So our specific role with the

7 National List, we establish and administer a

8 national list of approved and prohibited

9 substances. That's the -- AMS'

10 responsibility. Those are based on the

11 recommendations from the National Organic

12 Standards Board.

13 The Secretary may not include

14 exemptions for the use of specific synthetic

15 substances without a recommendation from the

16 Board, and we must publish any proposed

17 amendments to the list and seek public

18 comment, and must note any changes the

19 Secretary has made to the Board's

20 recommendation in any proposed and final rule

21 making that we do.

22 After evaluation of the comments,


Page 56

1 the Secretary shall publish the final National

2 List, along with an analysis of the comments

3 that we received on the proposed National

4 List.

5 In terms of the Sunset provision,

6 receive the Board's five-year review on the

7 National List substances and determine whether

8 or not to renew those substances. That's the

9 USDA's responsibility.

10 So we'll quickly cover the Sunset

11 provision, but we're going to go into a lot

12 more detail on the Sunset provision later this

13 morning. From the statute, no exemption or

14 prohibition contained on the National List

15 shall be valid unless the NOSB has reviewed

16 such exemption or prohibition as provided in

17 this section within five years of such

18 exemption or prohibition being adopted or

19 reviewed, and the Secretary has renewed such

20 exemption or prohibition. So the process is

21 the NOSB reviews, and the Secretary renews

22 these substances on the National List.


Page 57

1 So from our perspective the Sunset

2 process needed to be revised. There was a lot

3 of drawbacks to the previous process. It only

4 required two-fifths of the Board to remove a

5 substance from the National List.

6 Every Sunset required three NOP

7 rule making steps. Substances used to be

8 discussed in one public meeting and there were

9 many annotation changes that were

10 problematical for us to implement during the

11 rule making process.

12 So the revision we feel has many

13 benefits. It's a thorough and transparent

14 review process for all substances, it provides

15 two public comment opportunities before the

16 NOSB completes its review of each substance,

17 it ensures that any change to the National

18 List, whether it's petitioned or through the

19 Sunset process, is supported by two-third

20 majority, a decisive majority of the National


22 And it streamlines the


Page 58

1 administration of the National List by

2 simplifying our rule making process. So we

3 see there are many benefits to this revised

4 process. And as I said, we'll get into this

5 in more detail later this morning.

6 So a little bit of legislative

7 history of the creation of the -- and the

8 membership of the National Organic Standards

9 Board. The 1990 Farm Bill Senate Committee

10 and Conference Report, Board membership was

11 carefully selected to provide a balance of

12 interests.

13 There was concern about

14 appropriate representation given the Board's

15 anticipated influence in setting standards.

16 At the time it was noted that the interest of

17 farmers and handlers and the interest of

18 consumers and environmentalists required

19 balance, and that's why the representation

20 included six of each of these two interest

21 groups. It was then supplemented by a

22 retailer, and then later by a certifier and a


Page 59

1 scientist to have the 15 members of the Board.

2 The two-third majority vote to

3 carry any motion was set to adequately prevent

4 any one interest from controlling the Board.

5 So the idea is to have a majority, more of a

6 consensus viewpoint when there's a

7 recommendation that comes out of the National


9 So under the Organic Foods

10 Production Act, it states that the Secretary

11 shall establish a National Organic Standards

12 Board in accordance with the Federal Advisory

13 Committee Act to assist in the development of

14 standards for substances to be used in organic

15 production and to advise the Secretary on any

16 other aspects of implementation of this title.

17 So those are the specific things that come

18 from the statute about the National Organic

19 Standards Board.

20 There are many responsibilities

21 that the NOSB has. First of all, provide

22 recommendations to the Secretary regarding


Page 60

1 implementation of the Organic Foods Production

2 Act, develop the proposed National List or

3 proposed amendments to the National List for

4 submission to the Secretary, convene technical

5 advisory panels to provide scientific

6 evaluation of materials, review botanical

7 pesticides, advise the Secretary on product

8 residue testing, and emergency spray programs.

9 And there are some specific

10 requirements while establishing the proposed

11 amendments and those include reviewing

12 available information on potential adverse

13 human and environmental affects, obtain a

14 complete list of ingredients of considered

15 substances from manufacturers to determine if

16 it includes synthetic inert materials, and to

17 submit to the Secretary results of the Board's

18 evaluation and any technical advisory panel.

19 And then to use seven specified

20 evaluation criteria which are in very small

21 print here, but there are seven specific

22 criteria that the Board continually uses to


Page 61

1 evaluate substances through the Sunset process

2 and through the petition process.

3 And this is abbreviated, but those

4 seven areas are to look at detrimental

5 chemical interactions. The second one is

6 toxicity and mode of action, the break down

7 products, the persistence in the environment.

8 The third one is probability of environmental

9 contamination during manufacturing and use.

10 The fourth is effect of the substance on human

11 health.

12 The fifth is the affects of the

13 substance on biological and chemical

14 interactions in the agroecosystem. The sixth

15 is alternatives to using the substance. And

16 the seventh is compatibility with a system of

17 sustainable agriculture. So those are the

18 criteria that the Board utilizes to determine

19 whether or not a substance meets the

20 requirements under OFPA.

21 The Board is also responsible for

22 establishing procedures for receding petitions


Page 62

1 to evaluating substances for inclusion on the

2 list, and to conduct Sunset review of each

3 substance on the list within five years of

4 that substance being adopted or renewed.

5 Okay. Now with that every quick

6 overview of some of the provisions in OFPA,

7 we're going to move on to the Federal Advisory

8 Committee Act. And under the Federal Advisory

9 Committee Act the Secretary has certain

10 responsibilities to establish the National

11 Organic Standards Board in accordance with

12 that Federal Advisory Committee Act.

13 And FACA committees are

14 established for the purpose of obtaining

15 advice or recommendations on issues or

16 policies within the scope of an agency's

17 official responsibilities. Like the NOSB,

18 many FACA boards are statutory. In 2012 141

19 of the 169 USDA boards were statutory.

20 So the USDA has many FACA boards,

21 many advisory committees that provide advice

22 and recommendations to the Secretary.


Page 63

1 169 as of 2012, and many of those are

2 statutorily defined by Congress.

3 So the NOSB is unique and special

4 and it's also the same as many other advisory

5 committees. It operates under the Federal

6 Advisory Committee Act and therefore the

7 Federal Advisory Committee Act is really,

8 really important to have a basic understanding

9 of some of the provisions in FACA that affect

10 the operations of the NOSB.

11 And federal advisory committees

12 exist to advise and recommend, not to decide.

13 Obviously the recommendations are very

14 important to USDA, and we try as much as we

15 can to address them and to implement them, but

16 they are recommendations. They're advice to

17 the Secretary. It's the USDA's responsibility

18 to have the rules and the policies and the

19 guidance for enforcing and protecting organic

20 integrity.

21 Some of the requirements that FACA

22 committees must have, there has to be a


Page 64

1 charter. It has to be established with

2 mission and duties and the charter has to be

3 renewed every two years. We have a charter

4 that's just about ready to expire. The new

5 charter will be posted very shortly, within

6 the next few weeks I believe.

7 And the charter is a very

8 important thing. It's on our website, people

9 should take a look at it. It has some basic

10 provisions about the operating procedures for

11 the National Organic Standards Board.

12 FACA committees also have to have

13 fair and balanced membership. The Secretary

14 appoints the members based on the Organic

15 Foods Production Act's categories. A

16 Designated Federal Officer for advisory

17 committee and its subcommittees has to be

18 designated.

19 FACA assigns a number of

20 activities to the Designated Federal Officer.

21 And there also has to be an opportunity for

22 reasonable participation by the public in


Page 65

1 advisory committee activities, subject to

2 agency guidelines around FACA committees.

3 Open meetings is part of the FACA

4 rules, so open meetings with opportunity for

5 public comment. Any member of the public is

6 permitted to file a written statement with the

7 advisory committee, and any member of the

8 public may speak to or address the advisory

9 committee within the appropriate guidelines.

10 So everything that the Board does has to be

11 done in -- under the Open Public Meetings Act

12 and in the public.

13 So what's the difference between

14 subcommittees versus committees? That's why

15 we changed the name a few years ago. We used

16 to call the subcommittees committees, but

17 committees are things that are subject to the

18 FACA rules. That's why we're now calling them

19 the handling subcommittee, the crops

20 subcommittee, and so on.

21 Subcommittee meetings must be

22 conducted in accordance with FACA's openness


Page 66

1 requirements if recommendations are made

2 directly to the federal agency. And the way

3 that the things are set up under this Board is

4 subcommittees do not make recommendations

5 directly to USDA or AMS. They provide a

6 process for the Board as a whole to have some

7 work being done and proposals brought forward

8 to the full Board for discussion and decision.

9 So there's no decision making that

10 occurs at the subcommittee level. They're

11 just bringing things forward, organizing the

12 work so the full Board that meets here today

13 and other meetings, this is where the final

14 advice and recommendation is determined.

15 So the parent advisory committee

16 would -- subcommittee would have to meet FACA

17 openness requirements if the parent advisory

18 committee would adopt the subcommittee

19 recommendations without any further

20 deliberations. The further deliberations

21 happen here.

22 NOSB subcommittee proposals do not


Page 67

1 come directly to USDA, they come through the

2 NOSB full committee, and this is why the

3 subcommittee calls are not currently opened to

4 the public, and this is also why we call

5 subcommittee products proposals rather than

6 recommendations.

7 So our responsibilities,

8 Agricultural Marketing Service's

9 responsibilities is, first of all, we need to

10 comply with FACA, with Federal Advisory

11 Committee Act. We need to issue

12 administrative guidelines and management

13 controls that apply to advisory committees.

14 We designate a committee management officer

15 and a Designated Federal Officer for each

16 advisory committee and its subcommittees.

17 We provide a written determination

18 stating the reasons for closing any advisory

19 committee meeting to the public, and we have

20 to review at least annually the need to

21 continue each advisory committee consistent

22 with the public interest and the purpose of


Page 68

1 each advisory committee. So every year we

2 have to submit a report on the NOSB and

3 whether or not the NOSB should continue to

4 function as an advisory committee.

5 We also determine that staff,

6 experts and consultants to advisory committees

7 are justified and levels of agency support are

8 adequate. We develop the procedures to assure

9 that the committees' recommendations will not

10 be inappropriately influenced by the

11 appointing authority or by any special

12 interest, but will instead be the result of

13 the committee's independent judgment.

14 We also are responsible to assure

15 that the interests and affiliations of

16 advisory committee members are reviewed for

17 conformance with applicable conflict of

18 interest statutes, regulations issued by the

19 Office of Governmental Ethics, including any

20 supplemental agency requirements and other

21 federal ethics laws. There's a lot of

22 different things that we're responsible for to


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1 make sure that these are operating

2 appropriately for the National Organic

3 Standards Board.

4 AMS' Designated Federal Officer,

5 which is myself, to the NOSB is the NOP deputy

6 administrator. The Designated Federal Officer

7 is the one that calls the meeting, that

8 attends the meeting, and adjoins the committee

9 meetings. That means the NOSB meetings are

10 called and adjourned by the Designated Federal

11 Officer.

12 We develop and approve the

13 agendas. Obviously with lots of input from

14 the National Organic Standards Board, but it's

15 our responsibility to develop and approve the

16 NOSB agenda. We maintain the required records

17 and we retain the budgets, we ensure efficient

18 operations and adherence to FACA and other

19 laws, we develop committee reports for the

20 committee management officer and we must

21 submit an annual report on Board activities,

22 meetings and expenses. So we have lots of


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1 things that we do to support administratively

2 the operation of this Board and the important

3 work that the Board does.

4 So if you put FACA and OFPA

5 together, OFPA doesn't direct the NOSB to

6 decide. OFPA asks NOSB to assist in the

7 development of standards, to provide

8 recommendations, to evaluate substances, to

9 develop proposed national lists and proposed

10 amendments to the list for submission to the

11 Secretary. So you all are making very

12 important recommendations, but they're not

13 implemented unless the USDA AMS goes through

14 the process to adopt them through rule making

15 or guidance or policy.

16 The Secretary -- and that

17 authority has been delegated by the Secretary

18 to the Agricultural Marketing Service, retains

19 the decision making and rule making authority.

20 Okay. So one of the things that

21 we found in the assessment process, lots of

22 questions about the nominations process. How


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1 do people get nominated, how people do get on

2 to the National Organic Standards Board. The

3 nomination process takes about a year, and I'm

4 going to go through briefly the steps involved

5 in the nomination process.

6 First of all, we prepare a Federal

7 Register call for nominations, an outreach

8 plan, and complete the clearance process to

9 publish the Federal Register notice.

10 Secondly, we announce the call for

11 nominations, we target having the announcement

12 open for about two months. Then the

13 applications come in, we review those

14 applications for completeness and for some

15 basic requirements, for instance whether or

16 not those applicants fit the requirements

17 under the OFPA categories.

18 Next we vet those qualified

19 candidates against the exclusion criteria.

20 There's some folks that are not eligible to

21 serve on the Board, if they're a registered

22 lobbyist or if they are on another advisory


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1 committee, they can't serve on more than one

2 advisory committee at a time.

3 Next -- it looks like we skipped

4 number five there. I don't know what happened

5 to number 5. We go from four to six. We

6 interview the qualified and vetted candidates

7 and we prepare a slate, an information summary

8 about the qualified and vetted candidates for

9 the Secretary's consideration. Then the

10 Secretary selects that appointee and the

11 appointee announced and the term begins in

12 January.

13 Okay. So there's a range of

14 factors that are considered in evaluating

15 those applicants for the Board. First of all,

16 the OFPA categories of seats to be filled,

17 that's a mandatory requirement. Second of

18 all, we have a recommendation from the

19 National Organic Standards Board on criteria

20 for board membership that came out in 1999.

21 We're going to cover that in more detail in

22 the next slide. The other things that we're


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1 looking at is ability to work collaboratively

2 with other Board members and with USDA.

3 And then there's -- the Secretary

4 is very passionate about diversity and wanting

5 to make sure that the Board represents all

6 racial and ethnic groups, women and men and

7 persons with disabilities. Very, very

8 important to have that diversity of the

9 American public represented on the National


11 So in 1999 the NOSB recommended

12 criteria for board membership. These criteria

13 are on the NOP's nominations webpage and in

14 our Federal Register announcements. And

15 they're used during the candidate evaluations.

16 So this is an example of an NOSB

17 recommendation on what are the criteria for

18 board membership that USDA has implemented in

19 our process in terms of nomination and

20 appointment of new board members.

21 The criteria that are in the

22 Federal Register notice that come from the


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1 NOSB recommendation are understanding of

2 organic principles and practical experience in

3 the organic community, experience in public

4 policy, commitment to organic integrity,

5 ability to evaluate technical information, the

6 willingness to commit time and energy needed,

7 and demonstrated experience and interest in

8 organic production and certification. So lots

9 of different criteria that are utilized in

10 this whole evaluation process.

11 So we do have a call for

12 nominations that's currently open. We're

13 accepting nominations for four new members.

14 The members are appointed by the Secretary,

15 it's a five-year term, it starts in January of

16 2015 and runs through January 2020.

17 We're seeking nominations for the following

18 seats: individual with expertise in areas of

19 environmental protection and resource

20 conservation, an organic producer who owns or

21 operates an organic operation, organic handler

22 who owns or operates an organic handling


Page 75

1 operation, and a retailer with significant

2 trade in organic products.

3 So those of you here that are

4 sitting in the audience, if you have any

5 interest in serving on the Board, we'd love to

6 see your nomination come in so we have a

7 diversity of folks that can be considered.

8 And as I said, the nomination is open until

9 May 15. More information is available on our

10 website, so please consider it, and take the

11 opportunity to serve up here with your fellow

12 community members.

13 Okay. Now we're going to move on

14 to the policies and procedures manual. The

15 policies and procedures manual is a very

16 valuable resource for the Board, for the

17 National Organic Program, and the public.

18 From 2002 to 2013, the PPM was developed by

19 the Board with revisions open to public

20 comment.

21 Moving forward, AMS is taking the leadership

22 role with the policies and procedures manual.


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1 The reason for this is, as you saw from the

2 earlier slides, is that we're responsible for

3 that. Under the FACA requirements we need to

4 provide the guidelines for the Board to

5 operate.

6 But the policies and procedures

7 manual is an excellent document. There are

8 many things that are just -- have been worked

9 on for years and work really, really well that

10 will continue to be utilized as we move

11 forward.

12 So the content of an amended

13 policies and procedures manual will include

14 NOP policies and procedures that are related

15 to the National Organic Standards Board, for

16 instance the conflict of interest memo that we

17 sent to the Board last year.

18 There are many parts of the

19 existing policies and procedures manual that

20 are working well and will be kept, and there

21 are some parts that need to be updated and

22 revised. For instance the Sunset revision


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1 component needs to be updated and revised.

2 If you look at the Sunset revision component

3 currently, it actually conflicts with each

4 other. In one part it says that there's a

5 renewal process, in another part it says

6 there's a withdraw -- removal process. So

7 there are things that need to be clarified to

8 make sure that that policies and procedures

9 manual is up-to-date.

10 Okay. Moving on to the topic of

11 work plans. As I presented, AMS drives the

12 priorities for what the Board considers. The

13 Board certainly has a voice in this process.

14 The public may petition additions or deletions

15 from the National List, and the public may

16 also submit comments directly to the Board,

17 and also write to the National Organic

18 Program. As I said, we do have a way to

19 comment at any time at [email protected].

20 So you can submit comments to the National

21 Organic Program at any time for things that

22 you feel that we should be working on.


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1 FACA requires that agencies

2 effectively use resources, so we're not going

3 to be asking for advice that we don't have the

4 authority or ability to act upon. So in terms

5 of the criteria for adding work plan items,

6 first of all, we would look at whether the

7 work plan item is within the scope of the

8 authority of the Organic Foods Production Act

9 and within our scope of authority, under

10 Agricultural Marketing Service.

11 Secondly, whether or not it's a

12 priority for USDA and the National Organic

13 Program. The item must be a priority for USDA

14 and NOP, and something that are able to

15 implement in a reasonable time frame. There

16 has to be a clear need. The item must reflect

17 a clear need from the program and the organic

18 community for which information or advice is

19 needed. And it could be a need, but we

20 already have enough information, so we don't

21 necessarily need it to be on the work plan.

22 There are items -- for instance,


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1 last year the Board was working a little bit

2 on the definition of production aids, but we

3 already had a recommendation from the National

4 Organic Standards Board on production aids

5 from 2005 that we actually have not fully

6 addressed. So there's no clear need for

7 additional work to do on that until we have

8 the time to evaluate the old recommendation.

9 And then clear scope. We must have a clear

10 sense of what the intent and scope of that

11 work plan item is.

12 So we are trying to be more

13 transparent with the organic community about

14 work plan items, so we are now sending memos

15 to the Board about work plan items that are

16 not under the National List or Suns

· don't change sunset. don't ... 2 other activities, and describe the roles of ... 6 respect the...

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